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Post by jason on Jun 5, 2020 15:50:48 GMT -5
As someone who grew up with the 70s/80s designs for the Archie characters, it was odd seeing the more "cartoony" look from the earliest stories for the first time. When did they go to the more "classic" look that most of us are familiar with?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 5, 2020 16:06:48 GMT -5
1955. Around Archie # 75.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 5, 2020 23:17:45 GMT -5
As someone who grew up with the 70s/80s designs for the Archie characters, it was odd seeing the more "cartoony" look from the earliest stories for the first time. When did they go to the more "classic" look that most of us are familiar with? When Atlas Comics lost its distributor and downsized to the point where Dan DeCarlo needed more work than Stan Lee could give him.
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 6, 2020 6:01:48 GMT -5
As someone who grew up with the 70s/80s designs for the Archie characters, it was odd seeing the more "cartoony" look from the earliest stories for the first time. When did they go to the more "classic" look that most of us are familiar with? To me, classic" Archie has several defining looks: Hartley, Lucey and Schwartz; they moved beyond the more conservative style that flowed into the early Silver Age and created a contemporary look at one of the key periods of popularity for the line (late 60s/early 70s). Whenever I think of a classic Archie period of art, its usually from the pencil of those three at the end of the Silver and into the Bronze Age.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2020 7:57:35 GMT -5
If you look at covers around the time the CCA was instituted that was when Archie "lost" his buck toothed look that he had for over a decade and moved toward his simpler more current look.
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Post by beccabear67 on Jun 7, 2020 13:09:56 GMT -5
Does anyone remember an Archie story where Veronica gives him an ascot and he gets a swelled head about it? One line was "at first I thought the ascot did something for me, but now I realize it was I who did something for the ascot". I even remember the punchline at the end that came from Betty. I just searched and it was in Betty & Veronica #81 which I used to have, I remember the cover. I think we inherited a bunch of these from my aunt. They could be very subtle and funny sometimes, even mature, and so much was the strongly established characters playing off each other. Another story I remember was Betty & Veronica deciding to act like boys to see how it worked, eating too many hamburgers and throwing a baseball didn't do much for them, but they end up whistling at two boys and walking off with them in front of Archie and Reggie who aren't laughing anymore! There was also a Little Archie where Ambrose (or was it Juggy) is convinced Archie's pop is up to something nefarious. I wonder if they might've used that plot more than once? I know they did it in Little Lulu where Tubby was often 'investigating' Lulu's father as famous detective 'The Spider'.
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Post by thecoffeeman on Mar 8, 2021 12:39:06 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2021 13:06:16 GMT -5
IMO any of the best of collections give you a good sampling to help you decide on what you want to read in more detail.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 8, 2021 13:13:23 GMT -5
Personally, I think you might be overthinking it; I've always found that with Archie - the 'classic' or, I guess, pre-Waid stuff at least - you can pretty much dive in anywhere. So that book you linked would probably be as good a place to start as any.
However, if you want something more systematic, with a good sampling of material up to 2000 from various periods broken down by decade, you might want to try the Archie Americana digests. There are three in all, with The Golden Age covering the 1940s and 1950s, The Silver Age covering the 1960s and 1970s, and The Bronze Age covering the 1980s and 1990s. Those are pretty substantial books, each with a little over 400 pages. ( Edited to add: looking over at the Amazon links, a further advantage in getting these is that there are very inexpensive copies available - which is probably also the case on eBay). which, as the title indicates, has 75 stories, one from each year up until 2015. It's also a good sampling and you get some of the post-2000 stuff lacking in the Americana digests (but also a little overlap in the case of the 1940s material).
After that, if you're still interested, you can go look for whatever more specific stuff might interest you (e.g., Betty & Veronica, Jughead, Lil' Archie, Sabrina, etc.).
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Post by brutalis on Mar 8, 2021 13:17:20 GMT -5
Ant of the already published 400-1000 page digests are spectacular. Both in pricing and delivering stories from all decades but with a specific leaning towards classic or current.
Archie Through the Decades provides a slight taste of style, tone and the times they were published in.
Any of the newest collections are pretty grand as well when focusing upon specific storylines like Jughead Time Police, the Archie Band stuff, Archie teens as Superheroes, Christmas and so forth.
Lots of affordable options to explore but I really like those 400-1000 page digests just for the variety.
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Post by thecoffeeman on Mar 8, 2021 13:39:11 GMT -5
Thank you for all of your input. I think I'll just grab some of the deluxe hardcovers since they're so cheap, see what piques my interest, and go from there. I see there's an 80th Anniversary box set coming out in October, but as far as I can tell it just repackages three of the four deluxe volumes in a paperback format with a little cardboard box set around them.
PS: I hope they print Varsity Edition Vol. 3—slated for January 2079 on Amazon... lol.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
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Post by Crimebuster on Mar 8, 2021 13:52:47 GMT -5
The Best of Archie Comics volume 1,which is 400 pages for ten bucks, is what got me hooked.
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Post by thecoffeeman on Mar 8, 2021 13:58:01 GMT -5
—and speaking of "monster tomes," there are over twenty 1,000 page digests! Wow.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 8, 2021 15:04:35 GMT -5
—and speaking of "monster tomes," there are over twenty 1,000 page digests! Wow. Proud to say I have them all. Found the 1st two one winter at Barnes and Nobel and now pre-order them ever since from Amazon. Great reads and nary a duplicated story among them.
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Mar 8, 2021 15:29:51 GMT -5
I second the rec for "75 Years, 75 Stories" as a cheap primer on all the era's
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